~ A kitchen of recipes, mistakes, and practice for vegetarians and vegans

Tag Archives: Chili

The more design work I have, the more I want to use my time to bake and cook. Going to the grocery store is the same as a kid’s excitement at a water park. It’s a fun way to spend the free time I don’t have. I’ve been wanting to make chili, even though it’s not cold out. Here’s a recipe for a HUGE batch. Can feed 8-10 people.

The Recipe:

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2 cans Kidney beans

1 can cannelini beans

1 cans Northern White beans

1 can Pitno beans

1 can chili beans

1 lb. smart ground fake beef crumbles

1 24 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 can diced tomatoes

1 small onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

3 stalks celery, finely diced

2 tbsp. minced garlic

1/4 cup pale ale (optional)

Dash lime juice (optional)

Spices (all to taste–I like it spicy):

Paprika

Salt (I use Tony’s Creole Seasoning instead of salt)

White pepper

Black pepper

Chili powder

Chipotle powder

Cayenne pepper

Garlic salt

Onion Salt

Celery Seed or salt

dash dill weed

Oil or butter

Start by putting your minced pepper, onion, garlic and celery in the bottom of your stockpot and sautéing them first with butter or oil(such as grapeseed oil). After a few minutes, depending on whether you like thick or thin chili, add all the cans of beans to a large stockpot with or without their liquids. I usually drain them a little, but not entirely. Next play with the spices. I prefer to make my mixture from scratch, however if you want to skip this step there are many chili-packets you can buy to cheat. Bring the chili to a boil, but then let it simmer for about an hour. If you are choosing to add beer to your chili wait until the end, at about 45 minutes into the simmering.

Again, I altered another recipe for the better. Instead of sticking to Post Punk Kitchen’s Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili (http://theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=209) I sauteed celery, garlic, a shallot (gives stronger flavor than an onion), peppers with cumin, chili powder, nutritional yeast, paprika, lemon juice, and weirdly a radish just because I had one. Then pulsed all these in my blender to use as a soup thickener, as well as half of the sweet potato (which I cooked using the microwave to save time). Then I just poured a cup or so of vegetable broth in a stock pot with a can of tomatoes with green chilis, threw in some Bay Leaves (remove when eating), and let the sweet potato cubes simmer. Then added the black beans and said pureed/pre-seasoned/cooked vegetables, and damn I had a winter chili stew-eque masterpiece. And it only took an hour to make, which isn’t too bad for a soup. And most of the time was pulling out vegetables and deciding which ones I wanted to pair together. Then the slow hand chopping and mincing, because I am determined to get perfect at chopping the “professional” way. If you like thicker soup, throw in some arrowroot or starch (I like thicker).

I also made some vegan cornbread to go with the soup, which is so intensely more satisfying than crackers when dipped (or my case, smothered in the soup). Though I used vanilla soymilk, and yes, I could test that hint of vanilla in my otherwise salty cornbread, I still didn’t mind it. But for anyone else, aim for plain soy or rice milk. Or regular milk, if you aren’t vegan. Oh–and never try to use flour in place of cornmeal.

Easy cornbread made for soup dipping (if eating for one or two, recipe should be halved):

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2 cups plain soy milk or milk of choice

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

<mix these first>

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2 cups cornmeal (I like medium grind)

1 cup all-purpose flour (or if you want be awesome, a gluten-free flour)

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

<mix all these dry ingredients>

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1/3 cup oil

<mix all ingredients, but do not over mix. Cornbread will not rise very much, so do not put in a pan that is too big. Bake in your greased pan at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.>

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And…To overwhelm you with choices:

After I made the stewy-soupy-chili, I noticed another similar recipe, but with an entirely different chemical-spice makeup than mine: